You can see that he’s Mysterious, Mischievous and Devious

So that’s it. World Cup 2006 over and done with. And its a bit strange, cause despite the fact that there weren’t many great games[1] I thought it was a great competition. Then again I’ve always liked good defending, almost as much as good goal scoring, and this was the World Cup of Defenders. Player of the tournament has to be Cannavaro. He was just fantastic. Still, it did lack those moments of great play didn’t it? And the diving and spoofing.

Which reminds me, it was a great move by RTE to use the Apres Match team to do all of the punditry for the 3rd place play off between Germany & Portugal. After all, no one really cares who wins that. Bill’s analysis in particular offered some wonderful insights, but they all did a great job:

How can I analyise something that I haven’t seen?

there with a loopy shot

a smackaronny of a shot. He’s given that some pelt hasn’t he?”

Look at the floppy fingers Bill

But its easy enough for the Germans because the Portugal have been so rubbish Bill. If you look at your man, the spoofer… he says “I’ll do my trademark nonsense… where am I going, my brain exploded, have it back Germany… you win nothing with eejits

I’ll stop now, cause otherwise I could just quote everything they said.

And Incident of the Tournament must be awarded to Zidane and the headbutt. There’s been a lot of instant condemnation, and while yes it was a stupid fucked up thing to do, we don’t know what Materazzi said to, I want to say deserve but that isn’t right, provoke Zidane’s response. Now obviously a football field is not the place for a headbutt[2] but I want to know what Materazzi said.

It is really fascinating to see the b’verse covering the world cup and Zidane and the variety of opinions on the headbutt, or as Clicker Conspiracy would have it the “Zizou”:

Zizou – a diabolic bull charge to the chest of an adversary […] My first reaction when I saw the slow motion replay of our new bovine ritual was to leap out of my seat shouting Thats Impossible! I couldn’t control my glee. And it has only gotten better with repeated viewing. I don’t know what it is about completely random and senseless petty violence that sets me off but this has to be the most poetic execution of such behaviour I have ever seen.

I heard something about a racial slur. Isn't Zidane Muslim? I know he's Algerian. (right?) Wouldn't be too surprising if he reacted like that to a racial expletive. Nor sadly, would it be surprising if such a slur was made. Sigh.

Did you know that Camus used to be the pre-war goalkeeper for Algiers FC?

He was born in France but of Algerian parents, and I think he's Muslim but I read somewhere that his wife & kids were Catholic?
According to wikipedia he was turned down cause the Algerian national coach said he wasn't fast enough. They also say
"Zidane is one of the football icons of his generation and is known to be modest, quiet and admittedly shy. However, Zidane has occasionally shown a quick temper on the pitch. One such display occurred in a 2000/2001 Champions League match between Juventus Turin and Hamburger SV, in which Zidane headbutted Jochen Kientz; he received a red card for this action. He also received a red card in the 1998 World Cup for stamping on a Saudi player. In extra time of the 2006 World Cup final, he head-butted Italy's Marco Materazzi, allegedly in response to a racial slur"

Apparently according to L'Equipe he either accused him of, or suggested he sympathised with, Islamic Terrorism. If that is the case then, while you can't excuse what Zidane did and he had to be sent off, Materazzi should have been walking down the tunnel right behind him.

I just read that Alan. Ealier the beeb were saying that he insulted Zidane's mother. But they've changed the story to say insulted his family.

Carl, it was a stupid action. No denying that. But Materazzi has to take some responsibility for verbally attacking another player. If of course he did. Football has a whole campaign to stamp out racism, this story does them no good.

So…why isn't Zidane talking to the press? It was a shitty thing to do no matter what Materazzi said to him, but I'd feel a lot more sympathy for old ZZ if he at least tried to explain his actions. Plus, then we could demonize Materazzi, and that would make everyone feel better. Haha.

Me and my inability to go with the crowd :) The more the media give out (and they are. "Questions" this evening over how exactly Zidane got so hyped up and peaked for the key matches. I'm actually a hell of a lot fonder of him now that at any other time.

The BBC had an Italian lip-reader in, supposedly he wished Zidane and his family an ugly death. Other suggestions come back to his mother, who was hospitalised just before the final, I think, I switched over as they were discussing it.

Lara Marlowe's Irish Times article lists several different reasons that are being bandied around. This is my favourite one:

"The Brazilian newspaper Globo showed the video to three deaf and mute teenagers who are skilled at lip-reading. They believe Materazzi said, "Tua sorella Ã¨ una puttana" (your sister is a prostitute), followed by an obscene gesture. The French website Sport.fr said the latter version was confirmed by a source close to Zidane."